Description
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (180661) was the foremost female poet of her day, to the extent that in 1850 she was mooted as a serious candidate for the Poet Laureate. With the publication in 2010 of a definitive five-volume edition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetrythe first full scholarly edition in a hundred yearsthis long-awaited collection on Barrett Browning's work from Routledge's acclaimed Critical Heritage series is both timely and desirable. After languishing for most of the twentieth century, critical study of Barrett has flourished over the past thirty years, focusing largely on her importance as both a femaleand a politicalpoet.
Particularly after her death in 1861, assessments of Barrett have been bound up with gender politics, and in order to partake fully in thisand otherdebates, scholars and students need to be able to consult the key primary materials: the reviews and letters which are currently scattered widely across online databases, archives in Texas and
